Best Practice Series — Vol. 17: Our Habitas — From 150-Person Ranch Party to Accor-Backed Global Hospitality Platform

Our Habitas was not built as a hotel company. It was built as a gathering of like-minded people seeking connection, authenticity, and a better future. The hotels came later — as the most durable expression of what those gatherings felt like.
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The Origin: A 24-Hour Gathering
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Our Habitas was founded in 2014 by Oliver Ripley, Kfir Levy, and Eduardo Castillo. The company's origin is not a business plan or a real estate transaction — it is a party. The first Habitas event was a 24-hour gathering for 150 people on a private ranch near Los Angeles, California, organised around music, food, and art. The founding team's instinct was that there was a guest profile — intellectually curious, values-driven, community-oriented, internationally mobile — who was not being adequately served by the hospitality industry, and that the way to reach them was not through conventional hotel marketing but through the creation of experiences so singular and so emotionally resonant that they became their own form of distribution.
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Additional retreats followed in Nevada, Tulum, Ibiza, and California. Each one built the Habitas community: a network of people who had shared something meaningful together and wanted to share more. In 2016, the first permanent Habitas property launched in Tulum, Mexico — originally as a pop-up hotel that was subsequently relocated to a permanent site. The hotel experience was designed to feel like a continuation of the retreat events: the same music, the same communal energy, the same combination of intentional programming and genuine freedom.
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Our Habitas' mission is to change people's lives through creating deeper human connections and to make a lasting impact on local communities through education, employment, and the creation of sustainable micro-economies. — Oliver Ripley, Founder & CEO
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The Global Expansion
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From Tulum, Habitas expanded to Namibia — the Kalahari Desert — and to AlUla in Saudi Arabia, in collaboration with the Saudi Arabian Royal Commission for AlUla. Each location was chosen for the same qualities: remoteness, natural drama, cultural depth, and the absence of any existing hospitality product that could deliver the experience Habitas was offering. By the time of Ennismore's acquisition, Habitas was operating ten cultural-defining resorts across four continents, with a pipeline spanning Bhutan, Costa Rica, Indonesia, Morocco, and Qatar, in addition to further assets in Mexico and Saudi Arabia.
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The portfolio that Habitas built across these locations shares a coherent design philosophy: architecture that is responsive to local materials and climate rather than imposing a universal aesthetic; F&B that draws on local ingredients and culinary traditions; wellness programming that integrates local healing practices and natural resources; and a music and arts programme that connects guests to each other and to the creative culture of the destination.
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The Capital Story: $71.5 Million and a Strategic Alignment
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Our Habitas has raised approximately $71.5 million across 16 investors, including Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, Starwood Capital, Barry Sternlicht personally, Travis Kalanick (co-founder of Uber), Abercrombie & Kent, and the Heritage Group. This investor list is instructive: it spans sovereign wealth, luxury real estate private equity, technology entrepreneurship, and premium travel distribution. Each investor represents a different dimension of the global luxury travel market, and the aggregate of their networks provides Habitas with a form of distribution and endorsement that no conventional marketing budget could purchase.
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In June 2024, Ennismore — the lifestyle hospitality company jointly owned by Accor and entrepreneur Sharan Pasricha — announced a strategic partnership with Our Habitas, taking over the management and development of the brand while allowing Oliver Ripley to retain his creative leadership role. The deal brings Habitas into a portfolio that includes Gleneagles, The Hoxton, SLS, 21c Museum Hotels, and South Place Hotel — giving it access to Accor's global development platform, distribution infrastructure, and operational expertise at a scale that the Habitas founding team could not have built independently.
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The Concept: Luxury for the Soul
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What Our Habitas calls its core proposition is 'Luxury for the Soul' — a deliberate contrast with the conventional markers of luxury that the hospitality industry has historically prioritised. Luxury for the Soul is not defined by thread count or spa square footage. It is defined by the quality of connection — to other guests, to the local community, to the natural environment, and to oneself. The Habitas experience is structured around six pillars: music, wellness, adventure, food, art, and learning and giving back. Each property offers a programme that combines these elements in configurations specific to its location and culture.
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The music dimension is particularly distinctive. Ambient sound design permeates the common areas, transitioning through the day from morning to evening. Musical performances break down social barriers between guests, creating the conditions for the kind of spontaneous connection that Habitas was originally designed to facilitate. The wellness programming mixes the team's own modalities with local practices and cultural traditions, making every class and treatment unique to the destination rather than drawn from a global template.
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What Our Habitas Proves
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Our Habitas proves that the most powerful distribution strategy in experiential hospitality is not reach — it is resonance. The brand built its global reputation not through advertising or OTA dominance, but through the emotional depth of its guest experiences and the quality of the community it attracted. Guests who experienced a Habitas retreat became advocates who brought others with them on subsequent trips. The community was the marketing. The experience was the product. And the product was compelling enough to attract sovereign wealth, tech entrepreneurship, and one of the world's largest hotel groups.
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For AWAYO®, the Our Habitas story is a reference for what it looks like when a hospitality brand is built around a community philosophy rather than a property portfolio — and for what happens when that community philosophy attracts institutional attention. The path from 150-person ranch gathering to Ennismore partnership took ten years. The architecture of that journey is worth understanding in detail.

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